Two years ago, Temple Judea of Bucks County had no full-time rabbi, but that was the least of its problems. The shul was also losing members and exploring a sale of its property.
Two years later, membership is on the rise and the property on Rogers Road in Furlong is secure. And over the weekend of Dec. 5-7, the Reform synagogue will install Andrew Sklarz as its full-time rabbi.
Sklarz has been working with Temple Judea since 2023 in a part-time capacity. Though he lives in Westchester County, New York, he commutes down to Bucks County twice a month for a long weekend (Thursday-Sunday or Monday) of religious school, Shabbat services and other in-person activities. Zoom connections can handle the rest, according to the rabbi.
“As my role has expanded, I’ve been spending more time there,” Sklarz said. “The post-COVID era has enabled us to do a lot of things we wouldn’t have considered before.”
The rabbi’s connection to the synagogue actually goes back more than two decades. In 2001, he was serving as spiritual leader at Temple Beth Torah in Northeast Philadelphia. But demographics were changing, and Jews were moving out of the city to nearby Bucks County.
Sklarz noticed the change, and one synagogue in particular caught his eye: Temple Judea. He was about to apply, but then he was diagnosed with leukemia.
It was a shock, and his community in Northeast Philly rallied around him. Sklarz stayed while Temple Beth Torah merged with Old York Road Temple-Beth Am. He recovered and left for a job in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he remained for a decade.
After leaving Connecticut in 2017, the rabbi worked for a couple of synagogues and as a social worker. That’s what he was doing in 2023 when Jerel Wohl, a former Beth Torah member and Temple Judea’s current president, reached out.
“He’s been a close friend ever since,” Wohl said of Sklarz, referring to their days in Northeast Philly.
Sklarz, for his part, saw it as kismet.
“It happened 22 years later than I had pictured, but life goes in different directions than we expect,” he said.
When he finally got to Temple Judea, Sklarz saw that the community lived up to his expectations. He called it “warm, loving and inclusive.”
“It absolutely felt like the right fit,” he added.
Also in 2023, Temple Judea’s congregants had expressed a desire to save the shul, regardless of where its next home might be. Later that year, congregants stepped forward to keep the community in its building.
As many as 45 current and former members donated between $1,000 and $10,000. One big donor contributed half of the money raised. Another congregant, Noel Weiss, offered the services of his construction company to handle maintenance free of charge, likely saving the synagogue between $50,000 and $60,000. A family member of a congregant also purchased Temple Judea’s preschool, Small Wonders, and began making rental payments to the synagogue.
Finally, in 2025, Temple Judea saw a modest increase in membership of nine new families. Between 2019 and 2023, the synagogue experienced a decline from over 200 to about 150.
All of these positive developments laid the groundwork to bring Sklarz on full-time. That was good, because the Westchester County resident just couldn’t stay away.
“Originally, I was coming on a monthly basis. I was initially coming to do services, do programs and so forth,” he said. “But then the role developed, and I was working with the school on a very active level. We saw the role changing and morphing into something more robust.”
Wohl called Sklarz in 2023 because he knew the rabbi’s good qualities.
“He really cares about our community. He really wants to get to know everybody in the congregation. If he doesn’t know you, he makes it a point to introduce himself,” the synagogue president explained.
Over the last two years, the members who didn’t know Sklarz previously have seen these qualities as well.
“We lived together before we got married,” Wohl joked.
And now, they are committed.
“We have a bright future,” Wohl said. “We are going to be out there in the community. Rabbi Sklarz is inclusive of all. He cares about Israel; he cares about interfaith; he cares about every individual in the congregation and is open to speaking with them 24-7-365.”
“I really enjoy this congregation. I wish to see it prosper. I think, now more than ever, we need strong Jewish communities,” the rabbi concluded.